


But the Things That Never Happened

by Brickmaster_Guy



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Alex ia very confused and doesn't know what to do, Drowning Mention, Gay, Ghosts, M/M, This is gonna be more than just romance, Tight Spaces, also, and Jonas and Ren are just being gay, and also accidentally contributing to Alex's confusion, it's there, just you wait and see, she's just so anxious and is having weird glimpses into stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-09 16:25:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12280188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brickmaster_Guy/pseuds/Brickmaster_Guy
Summary: The things that everybody's gone through both have and haven't happened, and yet it still comes back to haunt everyone. Regardless of how well that island was handled, they still haven't escaped and they still haven't learned. Or, to put it short and sweet: a perfectly good vacation is ruined.





	1. A Fear of What's Wet

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so here's something new. It's not Night in the Woods, is it? Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about that. I'm just hooked on Oxenfree's characters and story and everything, so now I've made this. It'll get good soon though, don't worry. This first chapter is exposition and just a tad pinch of drama and conflict. Oh. And gay. This is gay. I wanted to add to the growing number of Jonas/Ren stories.

  “We’re getting on _that?”_

  “Yeah! Crazy, right?”

  Just the thought of the cruise ship that now sat before Alex thrilled her just minutes ago, but now it didn’t. She felt… afraid of it? She wasn’t afraid of water or boats, regardless of drowning incidents. But now, this boat terrified her.

  “How the hell did you manage to get enough money to pay for this vacation, Ren? Secretly, too. Like, I’m genuinely impressed,” Jonas asked.

  “That… doesn’t matter right now. We're going on a cruise, Jonas!” Ren said.

  Jonas and Ren had gotten… close recently. Alex didn’t mind at all, but it was still weird to have her step-brother with her best friend. But, they were happy together, so Alex didn’t bother them for it, except for the occasional teasing.

  But, as the group started heading onto the boat Alex felt anxious. It must have been Michael's death that was making her so nervous, right? The water and the dying and all? Why else would she be afraid of water or a boat?

  “Alex, are you alright?” Jonas asked. The girl had a thousand mile and barely followed the two guys.

  Alex looked at Jonas, who seemed concerned. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I’m just thinking is all.”

  “Really? Trying out that whole thinking thing? How is it?” Ren butted in.

  “Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know, would you?” Alex teased, trying to get the attention off of her.

  “You not getting, like, seasick or something are you?” Jonas continued, speaking just as Ren opened his mouth to speak.

  Alex said, “Oh, no, I’m fine, really. I’m just… nervous? I guess?”

  “Oh, like a fear of flying, but for boats? You think we’re gonna pull a Titanic and sink into the sea,” Ren wondered, leading the three towards the room.

  “I don’t know, maybe? I just… god, I just have this really bad feeling, like… like something wrong with this ship, or that something bad’s gonna happen. I can’t really explain it.”

  What was Alex worried about? It wasn’t sinking, was it?

  A vision flashed in Alex’s head. It was sinking. She couldn’t explain what she had just felt or seen or whatever. It was like trying to explain what a color looked like, but she still felt something. Something… sinister? Sad?

  Ren spoke, “You… gonna come in? I’m only gonna hold this door for so long.”

  Alex left her mind and looked in front of her. Ren was holding their room’s door open for her. Jonas was settling down inside.

  “Oh, yeah, sorry,” Alex said, hurriedly rushing into the room.

  Ren let the door shut behind her and walked over towards the two step-siblings. “So, Alex, are you _sure_ you’re alright? Cause you really don’t seen like yourself.”

  “No, no, I’m fine, really. I just… I don’t know. I guess I’m afraid of water or something and never realized it,” Alex tried to explain.

  “Okay, well, we’re not gonna sink— this ship works well enough, I’m sure. And you’re not gonna be in the water or anything. I mean, if it’s bothering you that much I can—” Jonas reassured.

  “No, it’s fine. Sorry for being… distant. But, we’re on vacation, so I’m gonna try to have fun.” Alex looked around on at the room, only just noticing that there was a single bed and a single couch. “Wait, there’s only _one_ bed?”

  Jonas looked over to Ren, who returned the look. “I mean, we’re gonna be sleeping together, Alex. Is… is that a surprise?” Jonas asked, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

  “No, just I didn’t realize you two were _there_ already. Or that you were okay with your sister being ten feet away, but do what you want, I guess. I’ll just leave the room.”

  Jonas’s eyes widened and he blushed, looking mortified, “No, that’s— we’re not doing—”

  Ren interrupted the nervous boy, “Don’t worry, we’re not quite there yet. No messing around for us, just sleeping. Close. In the same bed. I mean, it saves me some money getting just one bed, anyway.”

  “Wow, so you’re okay with just forcing me to the couch, huh? That wasn’t a problem? You’d rather save a few dollars than give your own dear, dear friend an actual bed?” Alex said, faking a hurt reaction.

  “Yeah. Easily. No contest. Hands down. Without a—”

  “Okay, got it: I’m worth nothing to you— what are we gonna do on this cruise while we’re here?”

  “We’re going to drink and be stupid… and commit improper acts.”

  “Wait, that—”

  “Oh god, what do you mean by ‘improper acts’, Ren?” Jonas asked, his blush subsiding.

  “I mean: we’re gonna explore and go places on the ship we shouldn’t. I specifically found a cruise that’s lax on security, and so with just the slightest bit of stealth, we can go almost anywhere we want to,” Ren explained.

  “Why can’t we just have a normal vacation, though? Why do we need to break into stuff?”

  “Look, we just need a _little_ bit of excitement here on this vacation, and how else am I gonna supply it? I can’t bring any brownies, cause everyone would smell ‘em! Besides, you’ve already gone to jail, so does it really matter if you go again?”

  “Ren, I swear to fucking god, I—”

  “Alright, I’m sorry for teasing you, it was just really easy.”

  Alex let the two boys settle their differences and make up, and as they did, Alex continued to think about how strange all this was. She felt like Ren had said those exact words before. ‘Drink and be stupid’ and ‘improper acts’. Jesus, she felt so nervous and uneasy. She felt as if something wrong was gonna happen. Or… had happened? Alex was forgetting something, or remembering something? Maybe it was déjà vu. It was probably déjà vu. Nothing had happened yet and nothing would happen. Her friend, her brother, and her were simply going to enjoy a wonderful, mostly uneventful vacation out in the sea. Alex needn’t worry. Except, perhaps about whether she would be able to survive Ren and Jonas’s flirting _and_ bickering.


	2. Déjà Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which reality becomes a more elusive concept and Alex becomes more confused and distant from herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here's chapter two. I know it kinda seems like this isn't going anywhere, but I can assure you it is. But regardless, I've gotta find a way to insert more Jonas and Ren fluff in here because there just isn't enough in this story. Also, if you don't think that The Beach, 7 AM (from the Oxenfree OST) is the most dramatic, impactful song that's ever been produced then you're lying to yourself.

    The sun had begun to set, and the two siblings were out of the willpower needed to keep Ren from breaking and entering. So they agreed to follow Ren into _one_ room.

    “Besides, we’ll get to eat some food and walk around and stuff. Y’know, for fun!” Ren added as Jonas locked the door behind him.

    Jonas sighed, “Alright, we can have some 'fun’ or whatever, but if you get caught for trespassing, I’m not helping you.”

    Ren laughed. “Okay, that’s fair enough.”

    Alex still felt uneasy, and she had since getting on the boat. She was trying to ignore it and have fun, but was having trouble. And now that it was getting dark, that fear only got reinforced.

    It felt like she was getting… glimpses into something that hadn’t ever happened. And it wasn’t good, whatever that was. She could remember being with Jonas, both of them terrified of what surrounded them, and then—

    “Alex?” Ren said, “Alex, you aren’t okay. Do we need to take you to get help or something? Is it the water?”

    Alex didn’t know she had again managed to zone out. All she was doing was concerning her friends. “No, it’s just… I’m like nervous or something… But it doesn’t matter. Let's go do stuff.”

    “Really? Cause you don’t sound enthusiastic in the slightest,” Ren responded.

    “Yay, fun,” Alex said unenthusiastically, unenergetically putting her arms up. Ren, knowing Alex for as long as he had, could still tell that Alex was still nervous and unfocused, but wanted to continue and knew that Alex would again insist she was fine, so let it go.

    The three headed towards the side of the ship, which just so happened to be desolate. Ren smirked, knowing exactly what he wanted to do. Alex only became more uneasy upon this. Alex could sense something new. Er… old. It was another one of those déjà vu memory sensation things. Crawling. Her on her hands and knees going through some small gap in a wall or something. It felt not only like it had just happened, but also like it was happening. Alex couldn’t for the life of her explain what the fuck she was even feeling.

    “Can’t we get some food before we break and enter?” Jonas asked, almost whispering.

    “...Not right now. This area is free of annoying people, and we can do what I want to do without problems. It might not be when we come back if we go get food. Besides, we’re gonna go in the air vents, and I bet the rules for air duct crawling are similar to the ones for swimming: wait thirty minutes after eating before swimming” Ren explained, half-joking.

    Air ducts. That’s why Alex remembered crawling. She was having some sort of future vision or something. She had a chance to stop some sort of horrible accident or something. Someone was gonna get hurt in that air duct. Someone was gonna get killed in that air duct. Someone was gonna get caught in that air duct.

    “We—we’re gonna in there? In the air ducts? Crawling?” Alex asked, trying, and failing,to hide her anxiety.

    Ren kneeled down to get face to face with the duct on the side of the boat. Not turning around he said, “Yeah. Why does that matter?”

    “It’s just,” Alex tried to explain without sounding crazy, “going in the air ducts is gonna be bad for the boat, right?”

    “Shouldn’t be.” Ren nonchalantly shrugged while trying to unscrew a few screws on the vent, “Jon, can you help me with this?”

    Jonas sighed and grabbed the screwdriver out of Ren’s hand, kneeling down in front of the vent. He unscrewed them with ease. “Weak,” Jonas taunted.

    Ren gasped dramatically, “That’s not very nice, Jonas.”

    Alex figured out what she was afraid of. It was sinking. She had sunk and drowned. She had died.

    “Wait, we can’t go in there!” Alex almost shouted.

    “Why not?” Ren asked, half inside of the duct already.

    “Uh…” Alex thought.

    Ren stood up and turned around. “Alex, if you don’t wanna go in you don’t have to.”

    “I don’t want to, but you shouldn’t go in either. I can’t explain it, but I just feel that something's wrong.”

    Ren sighed. “Alex, this is me trying to be as considerate and nice as I can. I’m not gonna do whatever you want because of some weird anxieties. I wanna go into the vent and see some cool stuff.”

    Alex thought for a moment before sighing. There wasn’t much she could do. So, she hoped that no one would get hurt and stood back. Ren went back to the duct and began to crawl in..

    Ren disappeared into the darkness of the air duct, and Jonas waited for Ren to say whether he should come in. Alex stood back, overwhelmed by anxiety, waiting for something to happen.

    Ren’s voice echoed from inside the duct, “There’s like… god, this is gonna sound stupid, but there’s like something in here.”

    “No, I see it, too.” Jonas agreed.

    Alex shuddered as a chill ran down her spine. Something was happening. This wasn’t right. This was definitely wrong.

    Jonas crawled in the air duct behind Ren, quickly disappearing into the shadows. Alex felt she nervous she could practically burst.

    A few seconds went by. Then a minute. Then a few minutes. Neither of them had come out or said anything, and Alex was about ready to call for help. But suddenly, a voice rang out from out the duct, surprisingly clear. “Sleepy time. Gal.”

    The darkness of the duct began to subside as red light began to shine from somewhere inside. Certainly not inviting, and Alex’s anxieties agrees, yet she now felt an urge, to go inside. It practically pulled her towards it, all while she was screaming at herself to stay as far away from it as she could. To go get help. To try to get a guard.

    She crawled in, feeling yet another intense wave of déjà vu. This had happened before. The darkness, the crawling, the fear. Alex was going to die here. She could feel it, yet she chugged along.

    “Is. Leave. Possible.”

    Alex opened her mouth to speak, only to get interrupted by the voice again.

    “Whatever you think you can do, you can’t.”

    Alex could feel herself sinking. Plunging into the icy sea. Her last breath before submerging. The air leaving her lungs. She stayed still in the vent.

    No, no. No, that couldn’t be her memory. Somehow she was remembering someone else’s life, er, death rather. Drowned. In a boat. No… submarine. Friendly fire. It was becoming clearer, and almost as if to agree with her, the red light grew more intense. It flickered like a candle.

    “Are you… did you drown? Is that what you’re trying to tell me? Are you trying to warn me? Is that why I’ve felt so worried the whole time I’ve been here?” Alex wondered, speaking faster and faster as she talked.

    Silence. Alex again opened her mouth to speak, but got interrupted by a painful sounding screech. It grew louder, and the light grew brighter. The light no longer flickered, but rather shined brightly and fluorescently. It continued to grow in intensity, forcing to Alex to close her eyes. Everything seemed to be painful and intense. Then it stopped. The light stopped immediately, as did the sound. Alex opened her eyes. Darkness. She wasn’t in the duct anymore. She was alone.


End file.
